Until When You Die

In 1979, the Vietnamese "Auntie" and her Chinese husband and three children fled from North Vietnam via Hong Kong to England. She still does not want to appear on-screen, and the voice-over telling her story is not hers either, as the end credits make clear. 25 years after her escape from North Vietnam, Auntie is still uneasy about how things will turn out, even though she has been living safely for years in a country that takes care of you until your death: "Until when you die." While Auntie reads her life story in simple sentences, we see images from modern Vietnam, which she dares to visit. She goes to see old friends and points out the place where the boat once departed from. In England, she also visits friends from back then. For us, Auntie doesn't have a name or a face, but her story represents a reality for many Vietnamese.